UPDATED: Jan 21,
2010
The general rule in Search Engine Optimization is focus on one key word phrase for each page. That key word phrase should be the name of the file, the title, the meta tag description.
I sat with a client who could not figure out why she was not coming up in Google for some obscure phrase. I showed her that in fact she was on the second page. I then pointed out to her that the title of the page did not indicate that the phrase was what the page was about nor did the name of the HTML file that the website was showing.
You will see that the name of the page you are currently looking at is search_engine_optimization.html and the title is How to Optimize your Website. So actually I have violated my first rule of SEO which just shows you how difficult it is to do optimally.
That is why I find it unbelievable that so many people claim to do their own SEO for their websites. It really is an art and a science and requires writing many more pages for your website than you would do otherwise.
One area that requires experience and know how is picking the right key words. If you pick a phrase that is too general you will have stiff competition. If you pick a phrase that is too esoteric you will get very little traffic.
Try this tool http://www.metristpartners.com/seo-tool
or this tool http://www.webseoanalytics.com/
There are websites that help in this regard. I found the following list in an article by Zeke Camusio.
Keyword Difficulty Tool - http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/keyword-difficulty/
This tool allows you to check how difficult it will be to rank for a certain keyword.
Page Analyzer - http://seogeeks.info/
This tool allows you to check several vital metrics at once.
Keyword Density Analyzer - http://ranks.nl/tools/spider.html
Excellent keyword density tool. This is another Keyword Density Analyzer tool that I like a lot.
Visual PageRank Tool - http://www.iwebtool.com/visual_pagerank
A great way to see the PageRank of all the pages on your website.
Backlink Checker - http://www.backlinkwatch.com/index.php
The most powerful free backlink tool available.
Keyword Competition Check Tool - http://www.justsearching.co.uk/tools/keyword-competition/
You will love this one. Enter the keyword you want to rank for and you can see an analysis of your top 10 competitors.
Robots.txt Generator - http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/robots-generator/
Use this tool to control what pages you want the search engines to index from your website.
CopyScape - http://www.copyscape.com/
Very useful service that allows you to check and avoid duplicate content.
NameBoy - http://www.nameboy.com/
Having your keywords in the URL of your website is very important. This cool application suggests available domains based on the keywords you want to rank for.
Search Engine Optimization Analysis Tool - http://www.seoworkers.com/tools/analyzer.html
A great way to analyze your pages and improve them for the search engines.
Search Engine Spider Simulator - http://www.webconfs.com/search-engine-spider-simulator.php
This tool shows you a website just like the search engines see it.
Backlink Builder - http://www.webconfs.com/backlink-builder.php
Very useful backlink tool. Enter a keyword and it returns a list of websites where you can list your own site and get valuable backlinks.
Backlink Summary - http://www.webconfs.com/backlink-summary.php
See who is linking to your competitors and ask them for links too.
Google Keyword Tool - https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Hands down, the best free keyword tool available. Find related keywords and find out the search volume of several keywords at once.
PageRank Search - http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/pagerank-search/
Sort search results by PageRank. Very cool.
SEOmoz SEO Tools - http://www.seomoz.org/tools
Probably the best collection of SEO tools in the market. Some of them are paid but most are free.